Dec. 06 - Korean Dinner @ Lynn's

To Celerbrate Erin's return, Lynn made us authenric Korean BBQ rib. What a cozy Sunday evening!

Home-made yogurt

做法： 取一不沾鍋，2% 低脂牛奶加半罐煉乳以及一些奶粉中火煮到185°F(85°C)，期間不斷攪拌。優格菌種(organic plain yogurt with active cultures)放小碗攪散加冰牛奶混勻備用。 另一個鍋子煮熱水要消毒玻璃廣口瓶以及瓶蓋。 牛奶置冷水浴冷卻至115-120°F(46-48.9°C)。等冷卻期間可以消毒瓶子，之後整鍋熱水放烤箱幫助保溫。 牛奶到達冷卻溫度後加入菌種攪拌均勻。分裝玻璃瓶加蓋放水浴進烤箱(晚上8點多)。 約三小時後(晚上12點)，加一杯熱水進外鍋，去睡覺了。 睡醒開烤箱門，取出放冰箱即可。

要耐心煮牛奶不斷攪拌

燙瓶子及瓶蓋

原味優格當菌種加牛奶攪散

牛奶煮到溫度了
冷水浴等冷卻

分裝廣口瓶

蓋上蓋子進烤箱囉

成品

因為這次用心攪拌牛奶
所以優格質地細緻

Cheese Cake Lite

Makes 2 8-inch cakes.

Equipments:

• 2 8-inch cake molds
• Hand mixer
  
• Wax paper
• Baking pan (for water bath)
  

Ingredients:

• Butter 170g (unsalted or salted, I used half half)
• Milk 500g
• Cream Cheese 440g (two 220g boxes)
• Flour 75g (all purpose, do not use bread flour)
• Corn starch 35g
• Sugar 140g
  
• egg yolks x 6
  
• egg whites x 6
• (Lemon juice)
• (Vanilla extract)
• (Almond extract)
  

Directions:

• Medium heat, cook milk+butter.
  
• Turn off heat when boiling. Add cream cheese, mix till well incorporated w/o lumps.
• When mixture is still hot, fold in flour+starch. Timing is important here, do not allow powder to sit and form cooked clumps. Using hand mixer, mix till mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool 120F (50C).
• Add egg yolks. Set aside. It's now time to prepare cake molds (if using spring-form).
• In a dry bowl, beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue beating.
• Preheat oven 425F (220C).
• Fold egg white into mixture. Add lemon juice if desired. Pour into mold (no more than 80% full). Set in a baking pan with warm water (bake in water bath).
• Bake for 10 minutes till surface is lightly browned. Open oven door to force down the temperature. Also reduce oven temp to 215F. Continue to bake for 45 minutes.

Tips:

• After experiments, silicon molds are the best. No seams, and hence no need to water proof it with tin foil.
  
• Spring-form cake molds should be fully coated with wax paper. Wrap cake mold with tin foil to prevent hot water from sipping in. Using silicone baking mode, no need for wax paper or tin foil.
  
• I used 1% milk, salted butter.
• Only add lemon juice right before baking.
• Definitely add hot/warm water into baking sheet. Cold water will not work.
• 10 minute into baking (at 430F) or after enough coloring, definitely open the door (and/or add more cold water into water bath) and reduce to 215F for 45 minutes.
• Water bath is a must, that regulates the temp in the oven, and provides sufficient water vapor. 1-cm height is enough.
• When finished baking, allow plenty of time for cooling before placing cake into fridge. Best served after overnight chilling. Enjoy!
  

Equipment - hand mixer.

Combined mixture. After adding egg white, entire mixture feels light and fluffy. At this point, it should be baked ASAP.

Wax paper on the bottom of mold for easy handling. I should've cut to fit.

Mixture poured into silicon baking mold.

Upper layer cake got tanned completely.

Lower layer one didn't get browned as much. Just as experiment to see how it comes out.

Silicone baking mold is the way to go, no wax paper needed, see how smooth the bottom is

June dinner - Pearl Pork Meatballs

Great gathering we had in June. Here's photo I took from previous experiments.

Pearl Rice Pork Meatball
Ingredients:

• Ground Pork (2 lb, makes 4 plates, ~15 each)
• Salt
• Sugar (a pinch)
  
• White ground pepper (白胡椒粉)
• Canned water chestnut (荸薺)
• Seasame oil
• Soy sauce
• Rice wine
  
• Ground ginger
• Corn starch (太白粉)
  
• Sweet rice (糯米)

Directions:

• Start by soaking rice in water (10 min), for coating pearls.
• Hammer water chestnuts to very small pieces and mix into pork
• Mix all ingredients, make solid meatball, coat with rice
• Steam for 12~15 min.

Tips:

• I hate hand mixing ground meat, so I mixed everything into the bag meat came with.
• Corn starch is crucial to hold meatball together, do not substitute.
• Do season ground meat by not being stingy on salt and soy sauce; otherwise meatball end up blend and I had to "taint" meatball with soy sauce (not pretty, black pearl, pic 2).
  

Daifuku/Mochi Recipe

It is easy to make Daifuku by yourself. Especially, it is so convenient to make mochi by using microwave. You can change the filling to make various daifuku or mochi!

Ingredients:

-8 strawberries
-120g glutinous rice flour(糯米粉)
-30g sugar
-200g water
-some tapioca starch(太白粉for dusting)
-some bed bean paste(小倉brand)

Directions:

A.dusting powder

-Put the tapioca starch on a plate and microwave it for 1 minute. Then take it out, stirring well and heat for another 1 minute.
-Cool the starch and set aside.

B.the fillings

1. Wash the strawberries and remove the stems.
2. In order to be wrapped easily, use strainer to drain off excess water of the red bean paste.
3. Wrap every strawberry with red bean paste into a ball.
   

C. mochi

1. Place the glutinous rice flour, sugar and water in a microwavable container, and mix well. Cover the container with plastic wrap. Put the dough into a microwave and heat for 2 mins, and then, take it out. Parts of the batter will start to cook and solidify, stirring well again, and heat for another 2 mins. Now, the dough becomes mochi!
   
2. The mochi is very hot and sticky. So, be careful not to burn your hands. Divide the mochi into 8 pieces. Dust your hands and the every divided mochi with tapioca starch (B) to keep your fingers from getting sticky. Press the pieces into round shape.
   
3. Place the filling (A) on the divided mochi. Round and stretch it to enclose the filling. Remember to keep dusting your hands with tapioca starch.
   

Here comes your own Strawberry Daifuku !

First cooking club gathering

We gathered at my place, and it was my first time I had a group of people at my place for dinner. I was excited and nervous. We talked from sunset to midnight, from Erin's better-than-CSI prosecutor experience to... I can't remember... lasik surgery?

We had,
- Asparagus and arugula wrapped with prosciutto, with red wine vinaigrette

- Pizza: sausage pizza and shrimp pizza. We totally overloaded with toppings. The second pizza came out a bit soggier, and I'm guessing that the dough started to deflate after being left in the warm temperature about 40 mins after the first one is made.

- Erin made this lovely strawberry daifuku (草莓大福). The red bean paste is just right - not saccharine at all. 

Oh and I made mojitos for everyone - even Lynn liked it :)